Culinary Musings: What’s Your Guilty Pleasure?

 

I was scanning my Google reader a few weeks ago and stumbled upon an enlightening New York Times article revealing famous chefs’ guilty food pleasures. It made me laugh, because not I only do I crave some seriously trashy post-apocalyptic food every now and again, but so do most of the restaurant industry folks I know.

In the two years I worked at Floataway, I saw more McDonald’s cheeseburgers, QuikTrip subs, and “Double Stuf” Oreo’s consumed than you even want to know—and not by yours truly! Here I was working with some of the best chefs in the industry, only to discover even those with the most discriminating of palates can have plenty of (legal) vices.

For Friday kicks, I thought it would be fun to spill my ultimate guilty food pleasures (at the risk of considerable embarrassment) to see if maybe you would share yours. I’m sure some of you will turn your nose up at these—or me—but hey, you can you do. Okay, here goes:

1. Papa John’s Pizza – I have a soft spot for delivery pizza, and Papa John’s has been nursing my hangovers since college. To this day, it is still the only thing that can cure my aching head after the sporadic late-night bender.

2. Jif Extra Crunchy Peanut Butter – I have tried to get into the all-natural peanut butter thing. Really I have. But I just keep coming back to Jif. It’s so damn peanut-y, and crunchy, and well, it’s just plain good. The only accompaniment you need is a spoon!

3. Lay’s Classic Potato Chips – I don’t even like potato chips, but I do love me some Lay’s. Kevin Sharkey (Martha Stewart’s right-hand man) has been known to dump them in a silver bowl and serve ‘em up with Lipton’s French Onion Dip from the box. Oh snap, girl!

4. Dodger Dogs – There’s not a better stadium dog in the world. (And I’ve been to two, so I consider myself an expert.) Walt and I like the L.A. made foot-longs so much, I smuggle frozen 100-packs in my suitcase for us every time I return from Cali. No joke.

5. Marshmallow Fluff – I like to eat marshmallow fluff plain and by the spoonful, just how some people prefer to eat peanut butter (see above) or Nutella. I am even eating some at this very moment. What can I say? It’s all in the name of research…

6. Shells & Cheese – I have two stellar recipes for mac ‘n’ cheese—one cooked in the oven and the other on the stove. Both are delicious, yet serve very different purposes. But when a craving for “the cheesiest” strikes, there’s really just one thing to do. Succumb.

7. Dairy Queen Cake – How’d I know Walt was the one? On my first birthday as a couple, he secretly drove to eight (8!) different dairy queens around L.A. to find me their elusive ice cream cake. He didn’t succeed, but the effort was enough to keep me around.

8. Phish Food – So I used to think it was super cool that my favorite food was named after my (second) favorite band. But then I snapped out of my crazy hippy phase and actually tried comprehending their lyrics. The ice cream? Still a fave. The band? Not even close.

Okay, so I just let it all out there. But just so you know, I don’t eat all this junk all of the time. (That’s why they’re called guilty pleasures, eh.) Okay, except for maybe Papa John’s. Let’s be honest here, I eat a lot of Papa John’s.

Okay, now that I’ve bared it all it’s your turn. Go on, spill it. What’s your trashiest, most disgusting delight?

 

 Image sources:
Row 1 – Serious Eats, Amazon, Amazon, Wikipedia
Row 2 – Amazon, Amazon, Dairy Queen, unknown